


Maybe One Day

by Saunter_Vaguely_Downwards



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Arc Reactor Issues, Hurt Tony Stark, Iron Man 2, M/M, Palladium Poisoning, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 00:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19860358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saunter_Vaguely_Downwards/pseuds/Saunter_Vaguely_Downwards
Summary: What if the whole Palladium Poisoning with the Arc Reactor only happened years later, when Tony was already an Avenger?





	Maybe One Day

It was getting hard to breathe with each passing day.

"How much time, J?" he asked, his voice raspy as he put his finger on the little device he carried with him on his person at all times.

"Sir…"

"How. Much. Time?"

"…It seems you have about four weeks left, sir."

He sighed to himself quietly. This was getting familiar now- him, sitting alone in his lab. He was separating himself from the team, and he knows they noticed.

He just couldn't let himself get caught in a coughing fit, or desperately trying to reach to yet another palladium core.

He couldn't let them see him so vulnerable, so weak, yet he did want to see them, to talk and laugh with them. He wanted their help, but at the same time wanted to spend his time as far away as he could.

He left the lab once in a few days. He couldn't bear to see their faces glaring at him, some with anger and some with pity and sadness.

Sometimes he wondered if they knew.

Maybe they will find out one day, somehow.

On the nights he did sleep, he only did for a couple of hours. Either the nightmares woke him up, or the need to change a core.

He put an alarm every three hours because he was just too terrified by the idea of dying just like that.

Some nights he didn't bother with the alarm. Those were the worst nights.

Steve came to visit him more than a couple of times. He said they were all worried for and about him, but Tony didn’t buy that bullshit.

"You shouldn't be worried about me" was all he said before he and Steve got in a nasty fight, which by the end of it, Steve left.

Tony didn’t bother apologizing, because that happened for over a month now.

Fights were getting nastier, he knew that. Villains stopped rushing towards the Avengers because the brutality Iron Man was using scared them off for good.

It made Tony fear for the time after he would be… gone. Won't those villains come together to attack the rest of the Avengers?

And maybe he was jumping to conclusions again. Pepper said it was a habit of his, thinking about things that weren't happening, and never will.

She was worried sick about him, he knew that. She came by three times and left uncountable messages and unanswered phone calls.

Even though he didn't have much power left in him, he still kept fighting brutally against what few enemies they still had.

He fought as if he had nothing to lose, because, well…

He was a dead man walking, after all.

Rhodey took some time off to go and see him.

Tony waved him off while saying that he "doesn't need a babysitter, Rhodes."

Now, because of that statement, Rhodey stayed at the tower, visiting him as much as he could.

Fury came over. Offered him some kind of medicine, something to slow down the illness.

Tony didn't know how the man noticed, but he wasn't surprised and didn't really care.

When he only had a week left, and after watching the sort-of emotional trip down memory lane, that old message from his father- 'my greatest creation' and whatnot, Tony seemed brighter. He went up to the common room more, ate more. Steve smiled at him more, and this was the one that cheered him up the most.

When he wasn't working to the bone, he tried to fix all the relationships he ruined. Tried to gain all of his friends back. Maybe one-day whey will forgive him.

With less than a couple of days left, and coughing almost all the time, he returned to his lab. The final experiment, he thought when he entered.

He gets one try at this, so he better start.

Thank god, this lab was big enough for this experiment because he really couldn't imagine digging up holes in walls in his condition.

Steve found him a day later, still moving pipes around and not nearly getting close to starting his experiment.

He asked Steve for help.

And Steve helped.

And now was the final moment- Steve was gone to get them both water, and Tony was starting to move the laser towards the little triangle. If this works, he would live.

If not, well… there aren't many other options here.

The triangle lit up just like he imagined, and he shook with excitement and pride. His father was right- he could do it, and he did!

But- no, he didn't shake with _excitement_ … this wasn't excitement…

He brought his hands up to his chest in horror while he fell to the floor.

Intense pain crawled from his chest and up his neck, to his head. His hands went numb, and he started losing consciousness by the time his legs went numb too.

He reached with his arm to the freshly made Arc Reactor, his final invention, the one thing that would've made his father proud…

He felt like a failure when everything went black.

\--

Pepper was crying.

Steve couldn't blame her, and he won't deny that he was sobbing all night as well.

They couldn't understand Tony's actions for the last year. Something… strange was going on with him.

At first, he became ruder. Days passed by, and he became unbearable. Replying to everything with a sharp, annoying and sometimes hurtful comment back, and never taking anything seriously.

Steve thought he became something horrible, the worst of himself. He didn’t know if he could ever forgive him for half the things he said.

But that was before he learned the truth.

Tony never said a word about any problems with his health; he was always silent about this sort of things, according to Pepper.

Not a word from him, not even about slowly dying for over a year.

When two weeks ago, Tony started socializing with them more, he felt like forgiving. He gave the man more encouraging smiles, more support. Maybe that's all it took to bring the man he loved- the man he cared about back.

The team was finally getting their Iron Man back, their beloved Tony Stark back.

Tony asked him for help about something, some experiment- and even though he never really explained what the experiment was, he could see in Tony's eyes it was very important.

At the time, Steve thought that the experiment was the thing that got Tony on edge for all this time that after this one experiment this whole thing would be over.

In some sort of twisted way, he was right.

Then with the experiment, Tony got everything right. That was what he said, so Steve offered to go up and bring them some water before they can continue.

But of course, Tony wouldn't listen.

Now, three days later, and Tony wasn't moving.

According to the doctors, he was getting so much better- Steve thought that he never felt such relief then when he had heard that Tony's going to make it.

Even with all the relief, Steve would still get nightmares- Tony, lying on the ground, his limbs sprawled across the floor in an odd position, and one arm extended to reach to the Arc Reactor he just finished making.

Steve was horrified, seeing the powerful man he knew lying cold on the floor with dry tears on his cheeks, under closed eyes.

Right now, he could do nothing but wait for Tony to wake up. The doctors said he was fine, that his condition was getting better faster than they could even imagine.

Sam told him to go and get some sleep, but Steve preferred saying next to his friend, next to his teammate- next to his love.

He was in the room with Pepper and Rhodey, when he felt the hand under his stir, and saw Tony's eyes slowly opening up.

"He's waking up!" he breathed out in surprise, whipping the tears off his face.

"He's waking up!" and now he was smiling, as were Pepper and Rhodey.

He heard something coming from Tony, something about cocoanut and metal, but for now, he ignored it.

He had his friend back, and who knows- maybe they could start a relationship one day.

Maybe one day.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! If you did, please leave Kudos and comment, it keeps me happy and motivated to make other works! Please do chake up my other story. Im planning on posting some other ones, so hild on tight!


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